Romance South Pacific Puzzle
What is it about the South Pacific that conjures up romance? First of all let's define what does qualify as romance. As a starting point,Webster's provides: fanciful, unreal, fabulous and imaginary. The South Pacific offers fabulous vistas such as never to be forgotten sunrises not to mention sunsets. If you believe that you are not a morning person,you may very well become one while sojourning in the South Pacific. I know that I was while I was there. At Matava, a forty-five minute boat ride from Kadavu Airport after a forty-five minute flight from either Nadi or Suva, it was apparent on the first morning that the trek had been worth it as had getting up somewhat earlier than I usually did. One of my most memorable romantic moments was on a sea-weary launch reasonably far removed from Matava. We had anchored overnight on the edge of a reef several miles east of Matangi Island, probably somewhere in the vicinity of Noel's Wall but seeing as my host Noel Douglas had not as yet discovered it I'm not positive. After a rather uncomfortable night, we were up at false dawn and had a quick breakfast. While hoisting the anchor, which was a bit tricky because we were bobbing in a swell occasioned by the current bouncing off the reef. I was privileged to witness the sun bounce off our bow and climb into the sky like a large golden basketball. This image has stuck with me all these many years. Let's move on to something a little closer to the conventional interpretation of Pacific romance. In October of 1970, the media made a big to-do about an afternoon picnic that Prince Charles, on a mandate from his mother to preside over the handover of Her Majesty's Colony of Fiji, enjoyed on an unihabited sandy islet with a young lady, whose father had a powerful presence in the Islands. The paparazzi were frustrated as the picnic site was out of range of their telephoto lenses but that impediment did not hamper their speculations. Fiji has scads of remote beaches strewn throughout large and small islands alike. Most are little more than a stone's throw from other folks but nicely secluded. I fondly remember running our boat up on a sandy speck, offshore from the island of Qamea while gathering material for an article.
Romantic?
Matangi Island
